WHY

Sometimes we get so busy we forget about the things that really matter. Today as I took some time to be alone to finish some work, I listened to some of my favourite songs about what really matters – Jesus.

As I was listening to this one song, “Why” by Nicole Nordeman, it reminded me of the centrality of the cross. Why? The reason for the cross.

Those of us who have watched The Passion, a film by Mel Gibson, we would have seen a stark portrayal of the physical pain, torture and anguish that Jesus went through on the road to the cross. The whip wasn’t just a simple whip, it had metal and sharp bits at the end so that when you are whipped, the end tears into your skin and flesh and rips it from your body in agonizing pain. We cringe when we think about that. But that was the reality of the pain that Jesus endured. Why? The reason for the cross.

“He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so that we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” Isaiah 53:5.

Jesus died so that we may live.

It was the only way to eternal life. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23. Being God incarnate, He was perfect and without sin. He was the High Priest who pleaded for us before the Father. He was the sacrificial Lamb that was slain.

Jesus endured the whipping so that by His stripes, we can be healed.

When He went through the whipping and the crucifixion, He felt every pain in every muscle because He was human in His body just as we are, though without sin. There was no shortcut for this. He had to go through with it. For our sakes.

“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Luke 22:42.

“…Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame..” Hebrews 12:2.

It was for us that He endured the cross. He saw each and every one of us, and thought, for His creation whom He so longs to be reconciled with, it is worth it. We are why He must die…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14tZRDdwggU

“My precious son
I hear them screaming
I’m watching the face of the enemy beaming
But soon I will clothe you in robes of my own
Jesus this hurts me much more then you know
But this dark hour
I must do nothing
Though I’ve heard your unbearable cries
The power in your blood
Destroys all of the lies
Soon you’ll see past their unmerciful lies
Look there below
See the child
Trembling by her father’s side
Now I can tell you why
She is why you must die”

So when we sin wilfully, we are trampling the blood of Jesus, taking it lightly, almost as if we are causing Him to go through the pain of the cross again. It breaks my heart to think of that. Yet I sin, and bring Him pain. But it is in His power to forgive and deliver us from sin, so that we are no longer slaves to sin. It is like when Jesus forgave the woman who was caught in adultery, He didn’t condemn her, and told her to “Go, and sin no more.”

I have been reading the gospels and am amazed at the character of Jesus. Such power, yet such meekness. Such righteousness and justness, yet such mercy and forgiveness. Where man chose to condemn, He chose to forgive. Where man chose to kill, He chose to give life. Where man chose to do evil, He could only do what is right.

Why? The reason for living.

He is my reason to live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBKr7gUY1Mo

Why it was not a good day to make cinnamon buns

Yesterday was not a good day to make cinnamon buns. How many things can go wrong when you are trying to make cinnamon buns?! For me, quite a lot.

Disaster #1 – Put in half a cup of sugar instead of a quarter cup. Ended up trying to remove some of the sugar from the mixture of flour, salt and yeast…

Disaster #2 – Put in half a cup of water instead of a quarter cup. Using the same measuring cup! How did I just not remember that I was using the half cup to measure instead of the quarter cup? Reason #1: I’m used to using the quarter cup to measure things. Reason #2: I just lost my mind. Not in the baking mode yesterday… I couldn’t fix this as there was no way to remove the water!

DIsaster #3 – Ran out of flour! Already I needed to add more flour than usual because I added too much water. Running out of flour was not good. I had to quickly get flour so I can salvage the dough before it’s too late! Good thing there was flour at the provision store on the ground floor…

Disaster #4 – Zapped the butter for the cinnamon spread too long. It was supposed to be softened butter, not melted… Put it back in the freezer for a minute to harden a litle.

Disaster #5 – Now the buns are baked and I was going to drizzle some glaze over them. Ran out of icing sugar!!! Could only drizzle a little glaze over each bun. I guess that should be ok considering I put in too much sugar in the buns in the first place!

I guess yesterday was just not a good day to make cinnamon buns… Or maybe it was just lack of planning ahead! Hence the depleting of various ingredients. I had wanted to make oatmeal raisin cookies. But I didn’t have chocolate chips at home. I guess if I had thought of baking earlier in the week, I could have gotten everything I needed when we went grocery shopping on Monday! Then again, I may not have gotten what I needed since I don’t always keep track of what we have run out of at home! Shopping list shopping list, I need to keep up with updating the shopping list everytime we run out of something!

Here is the picture of the final product. It did turn out ok in the end… except for the shape, had some trouble getting them in good shape! 🙂

Camping In

Last week, Caleb had a camp-in with Daddy. Evan and I were part of the ‘festivities’, but only Caleb slept in the ‘tent’ with Daddy – in the study.

We started the evening with pizza for dinner, then went on a ‘bear hunt’, which became an African Animals hunt, then an Angry Bird hunt. It was great fun as we went around the house. The boys were excited even though we were in the comfort of our own home.

Then I went to set up the ‘campsite’. I lay the mattress of the sofa bed on the floor and put a sheet over it, hanging over 4 chairs, so that it can be a ‘tent’. Earlier on in the day, Caleb and I had come up with the idea for the ‘campfire’. We used a yellow envelope and put holes in it, then put it over an inverted flashlight. It turned out to be a great fire! Caleb’s Toy Story tent that he got for his birthday was also put up, just so that there is a real tent.

The 'campsite'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then took the fire out (conveniently) into the living room and had a little campfire! We sang songs, told stories and ate candy. It was fun. We would come up with 3 things that has to go in the story and take turns to make up stories.

The 'campfire'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trying to capture it in real lighting. We turned off the lights and only had the light from the flashlight and a dim yellow light. It was fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that I brought Evan into our room and we watched some Madagascar videos on youtube before he went to bed. Caleb was initiated into the Star Wars series last night! We watched part of Episode 1 and the little guy got sleepy. Daddy had asked him if he wanted to go bed earlier but he insisted on staying up till our bedtime. “Isn’t your bedtime 12 o’clock?” We told him No, it was earlier. I’m sure he was glad it was. 🙂

The next few days, Evan would ask everyday if we could have a campfire again. It must have really made an impression on him. 🙂

My boy turns 5

Caleb is 5 today.

5 is the number of grace. We have much to thank God for. His grace abounds in our lives and in Caleb’s.

We thank God for the gift He has given us in Caleb.

We thank God for Caleb’s zeal for life and in everything he does.

We thank God for Caleb’s infectious joy and laughter and the joy he brings to so many others.

We thank God for Caleb’s sensitive nature. He is quick to pick up on how others are feeling and it breaks his little heart to see someone sad. He prays for those who are sick or down and empathises with how they are feeling. Even his teacher in school commented that he is a sensitive kid, sensitive to the needs and feelings of others around him. He even puts others’ needs and wants before his… most of the time. 🙂

We thank God for Caleb’s obedience, respect for authority and desire to do what’s right.

We thank God for Caleb’s intelligence and his earnest desire to learn and learn more.

We thank God for Caleb’s ability to read so well at his age.

We thank God for Caleb’s creativity as can be seen in his making up stories, play time and art work.

We thank God for Caleb’s musicality. He writes songs, sings and plays any instrument he can get his hands on. Or else he would just make do with tables, chopsticks, toy boxes etc for makeshift drums.

We thank God that Caleb loves his little brother and is a good big brother.

Most of all, we thank God for saving Caleb and being his personal Saviour. We thank God that Caleb has known Him from a young age and knows how to call on Him for help and comfort, also to be thankful for what he has. We thank God that Caleb likes to pray, and read the bible, and now, to memorise his scripture verses.

It seems like we have a perfect child. No, no child is perfect, no man is perfect. But this gift that we have from God, is a perfect gift. And we have much to be thankful for today.

We thank God for today, when Caleb turns 5.

Frankenmuth

Frankenmuth is a quaint little German town in Michigan. We spent one night there on a short getaway/vacation. I absolutely loved it and our time there. Of course, being with the best guy in the world is the icing on the cake. 🙂 Here’s a pictorial journal of our time in Frankenmuth.

We got a room with a jacuzzin in it!

The town of Frankenmuth

There were so many wall murals

 

I love the murals!

 

A little 'village' in the town. All shops for visitors.

 

So quaint.

 

Exactly what it said it was.

 

Um... not as good as it sounds. Some things just taste better on their own.

 

A miniature of the Cass River that ran parallel to this place.

 

We went on a boat ride aboard the Bavarian Belle Riverboat

 

 

Us goofing around in the museum. (Of course we had to visit the historical museum.)

 

 

Dinner was at Bavarian Inn, famous for its chicken dinners.

 

All the waiters and waitresses were dressed up as Germans. Reminds me of Heidi.

 

Bronner's Christmas Wonderland is a gigantic Christmas store. One and a half football fields.

 

All year long, it's Christmas at Bronner's! Love it!

 

The last thing we did at Frankenmuth was to visit Grandpa Tiny's Farm. Check out the giant pumpkins!

 

Cameron with Shorty, the Texas Longhorn

 

Baby bunny

 

That marked the end of our trip to Frankenmuth; a short but good getaway. 🙂

The Unpredictable Weather

We’ve had two beautiful days and I love them. The weather here has been unpredictable and swings like a pendulum. When we got here, it was Singapore weather (well, minus the humidity). Then it was rainy and like 18 degrees last weekend. Yesterday and today, it was 21, 25 degrees. Sunshine and beautiful, so we’ve had two great days to do some fun stuff.

Yesterday, we went to a baseball game. We thank God for the good weather, no rain! For a while the sun was really shining hard on us, but once the sun was done blazing on us, it was great weather and a great game! Tigers won in the bottom of the last inning, with two outs, no less! Go Tigers! It was also Star Wars night at the game so there were Star Wars characters all around the park. But… I forgot my camera! So we didn’t get any pictures with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, C3PO etc!!! Mad at myself! It was still fun to see Darth Vader try to use the force to strangle people when the characters were marching around the ballpark.

Today the boys went out with Aunt Deanna and Uncle John to the park and for ice-cream. It was a beautiful day for them to go out and play. I was glad they got to. As I said bye to them, it looked so beautiful outside that I decided to go for a run. It was 25 degrees. Much better to run in than 32 degrees. 🙂

Going for a run round the neighbourhood

When I came back from my run, the boys had just gotten home too. We spent some time outside, to take advantage of the great weather. Last week they couldn’t go out to play because of the rainy days. The boys helped Grandma rake leaves, then we played ball in the backyard.

As unpredictable as the weather is, it has been forecast that it will be 6 degrees this Friday! 6 degrees!! That’s almost freezing! I just pray that we will have the same great weather for two days, tomorrow and day after, as we will be going to Frankenmuth, a little German town further north in Michigan, for a little getaway, thanks to Cameron’s parents who offered to babysit while giving us a good holiday. Looking forward to that!!! I will bring my camera this time… And charge it tonight…

A Beautiful Wedding

We are right now in Michigan. We came back for my sister-in-law’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, and she was a beautiful bride.

As we were riding in the limousine on our way to take pictures at the park, I was just looking at Deanna and thinking. She looked like a princess. Today was her day. She deserved it, and she deserved being princess for the day.

 

Deanna is such a giving person. She leads a busy life; a lot of the busyness comes from helping different people. I’ve heard of her being bridesmaid for her friends, throwing showers and parties for her friends, even going to be with people who are about to have babies (as part of a volunteer scheme)! She and Mom planned and held our reception here in MI 6 years ago. Both of them are such giving and generous people. I am blessed to be part of the family!

 

Looking at Princess Deanna in the limo, there was a sense of happiness and gladness. Glad that love came to John and her. Glad to see them about to start on the next part of life’s journey together. Glad that today was her day, a special day for a special person.

 

Deanna and John with all the cousins

Clean ups

One of the many jobs of a mom includes cleaning up messes – spilt water, milk, juices, any kind of spills, accidents of the toilet kind etc etc.

Just a few days ago, I had to clean up urine, milk and water all in one day. The same perpetrator, at different times of the day, in different amounts.

Yesterday’s clean up far exceeds those in the last, possibly, year, in terms of grossness and difficulty.

We all took naps after getting home from church.When Evan woke up, he came out of his room without his pants! Daddy went to check out what’s happening and found a wet spot on his bed. He then told Daddy he needed to sit on the toilet, which means he needed to go ‘big time’. Daddy had reported to me what had happened by then. I saw the wet spot on his bed and was glad I’d put a blanket under him, thinking he may have an accident since he had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from church. So I just dumped the blanket in the washing machine.

Then came the mystery of the missing pants. He had taken his pants off himself in his room but we hadn’t seen the missing pants anywhere. So we went on a search for his pants. I finally found them stashed into his drawer of clean clothes, and then pushed close, leaving just a little gap which led me to looking into it. If you think that was the end of the story, you’d be wrong, though I wished it was. We saw, to our horror, that his pants were not alone. Brown, gooey stuff was sitting in his pants, incriminating evidence of what he had done. Yes he had gone in his pants, then stuffed his pants into his drawer of clean clothes. Whatever got into his head to make him think that was the best thing to do with his dirty pants?!

And that was still not the end! I backed up and realised I had something gooey on the sole of my left foot. And I had left patches of brown not just on the floor, but on the rug in their room! Where did I pick that up from? We found the culprit, just a little lump of brown in the middle of the rug. Our investigative skills led to the conclusion that he must taken off his pants in his room, being uncomfortable after having gone in them, and the little lump must have fallen out of his pants while he stuffed the rest together with his pants into his drawer.

So the clean up began. Washing the blanket, his sheets, some of the clothes from the drawer. I threw away those pants. Good thing they were old, having belonged to Caleb. And sprayed lots and lots of stain remover on the rug and mattress of his bed. I made him sit next to me and ‘help’ to clean up to realise the extent of the horror he had caused Mommy to experience. It all did come quite clean in the end, thanks to the fabric stain remover from my good friend, Jo, who’s a mother of 3. It takes a Mom to know a Mom and what she needs to handle the perils and toils of keeping a hom

Of Cows and Vocabulary

I learnt three new words today. I’m learning new words all the time. I wish I knew and used more words. But it’s never too late to keep learning. Ps Yang’s write up in the bulletin this week talked about the most productive people also being those who have an insatiable quest for knowledge and more knowledge.

 

1) Apocryphal = of doubtful authorship or authenticity; a word my husband uses often to describe facts and stories his cousin spouts. 🙂

2) Assuage = to make milder or less severe, to satisfy or relieve; a word I learnt from reading a GP comprehension passage today

3) Clandestine = done in secrecy; a term the preacher today used to describe his ministry because God wanted him to remain obscure and unknown, that all glory may be unto God.

I like having dictionary.com on my phone.

 

At Sunday School today the boys learnt about the sacrificial lamb. Caleb played the lamb whilst Evan insisted on being a cow, according to the teacher. So whenever we talked about what they learnt in Sunday School, Evan would tell us about how much fun he had being a cow (Where did the cow come in in the story anyway??) and he would go Moo Moo…

At bedtime, we discussed this again and asked the boys to pray that God will help us to be obedient like the lamb. Evan insisted, “Me not lamb, me cow…” Daddy decided not to pursue this and we just asked him to pray that God will help him to be obedient. So Caleb prayed, “Lord, make me obedient like the lamb.” Evan, “God, make me cow…” (Mommy and Daddy trying to stifle their laughter)

The random things in life

This ensued from a conversation with my husband. I was telling him funny stories about the boys yesterday and mentioned something we both thought was ‘blog-worthy’. So I said I should blog more, not just wait for big content to write about, but about the random things in life. Because “it’s the little things in life that matter”. And hey, that’s blog-worthy too! It’s the little random things in life that when we look back at them, will bring tears and smiles and tugs at the heart.

So yesterday Caleb had a major concern. On the way home from school, he told me we have to choose 1 out of 4 men to be the new president. He asked me whom I think we should choose. I told him I really have no idea. His teacher updates them on current issues, which is really quite rare for kindergartens. But it’s good that he’s aware, even though he may not fully understand. So I asked him why we need to choose a new president. His reply, “Because the old one doesn’t want to work anymore…”

Today we went on a hike on the Treetop Trail at MacRitchie – Cameron, Daniel and I. It was an awesome view from the actual bridge called the Treetop Walk. We took about 2 hours to complete maybe 9km or so. We saw monkeys, a huge monitor lizard, and my favourite is a stream that actually has running water. Just love the idea that the water is running because it shows abundance of  It was a great morning. But now my muscles are paying the price. Have applied muscle rub twice already. Argh…